Let's not pull an punches: from the moment this begins the viewing experience is plagued by a series of bizarre decisions by the filmmakers that immediately reduce the entertainment value to middling at best. Many have been the adventure-comedies that have been made over the years, but for the writers, producer, and director here it's as if the only adventure-comedies ever made were 'Romancing the stone' and 'The jewel of the Nile.' J. P. Deuttilleux, Eric Weston, Asher Brauner, Gerald Green, and Joseph Louis Agraz, however, took the wrong lessons from the 1984 and 1985 films. Instead of high adventure, warm romance, silly comedy, committed acting, and strong dynamics of all shapes between the characters, the folks who made this looked at the basic plot ideas of their inspirations and said "these are the root of Robert Zemeckis and Lewis Teague's success." And so we have the ruggedly handsome hero (well, I suppose someone thought he was handsome), the dubious supporting character (Don Calfa was clearly cast because someone thought his voice, recorded for narration, sounded like Danny DeVito), the whiny celebrity who is completely out of her depths, and an antagonist with some other interest; we have the search for a lost treasure, and framing of another level of storytelling (there, Joan Wilder writing a book; here, Calfa's "Harold" telling the tale to an otherwise uninvolved character). For good measure, add in the 80s' conception of a gay manservant (think Benny Luke in 'La cage aux folles') who has no meaningful role in the saga.
Oh sure, 'Treasure of the moon goddess' gives us the other stuff, too. We get stunts, effects, and otherwise action sequences, and scenes of our unlikely group trudging through the wilderness; we get intended humor, and a scene set in a picturesque remote town late at night. We also get no small amount of racism, xenophobia, sexism, and homophobia, and halfhearted music (sometimes plainly and limply imping Alan Silvestri). We get weak sound design, and direction and acting that's less than entirely convincing when characters aren't running or combustible set pieces aren't exploding. Brauner, starring as our supposed hero Sam Kidd, has a vocal timbre, delivery, and range that recalls Lorenzo Music's interpretation of Jim Davis' famous feline creation as seen in the animated series 'Garfield and friends.' There is a plot, and it's decent enough, but it feels kind of light and the pacing is a rather weak; the dialogue is sometimes just bad, and the scene writing really needed considerable improvement. True, the crew turned in excellent work, including not just those stunts and effects, but definitely the sets, too - above all the lair of "Gonga" seen in the last act - and costume design, hair, and makeup. I actually rather admire Timothy Ross' cinematography. Yet the simple fact of the matter is that in too many of the most critical ways, the feature is decidedly troubled and less than invigorating. I think there was fine potential in these ninety minutes for a delightful romp, but when you get right down to it the writing and direction were in need of substantial revision, and the remainder suffers in turn.
Had appropriate and meaningful focus been given to the production from the start this could have been a really great time. There were real possibilities here. We don't even have characters that we can care about, however, and there's a dire paucity of the earnestness and heart that would have allowed the narrative to mean anything; emphasizing the point, the best acting we get from Calfa (or Brauner, or Jo-Ann Ayer) comes in the epilogue of the very last few minutes. The comedy, the adventure, and the romance all fall far too flat, and 'Treasure of the moon goddess' quite comes across as nothing but a pale imitation of far better movies. It's not altogether terrible, and there are much worse ways to spend your time, but unless you have some particular motivation for watching, you're better off searching elsewhere for the genre kicks you want.
